JUMP FROM BRIDGE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 938, 7 December 1933, Page 11

JUMP FROM BRIDGE.

Young Girl Rescued From Sydney Harbour. THIRTY-SEVEN VICTIMS. (Special to the “ Star.”) SYDNEY, November 25. Recently a man rn control of one of the Harbour Trust launches who happened to be close to the bridge, saw a girl fall from above and strike the water “ like a great stone ” not far away. lie reached the spot quickly and found the girl struggling and moaning. As he raced towards the shore he was met by the Water Police launch which hurried the girl off to land, and so to Sydney Hospital. After some hours of careful treatment, she recovered consciousness enough to mutter her name and the first syllable of a town—“ Woon.” The police got into touch with Woonona, a little town 45 miles south of Sydney, and soon identified the girl’s mother—Mrs Hope —who thus learned for the first time of her daughter’s tragic mishap. The story is a strange one. Madge Hope, an exceptionally pretty girl, 15 years old, had apparently no cause to be unhappy or to feel dissatisfied with life. Loving and beloved, she had plenty of innocent pleasures and on Tuesday evening—the night before her fall—she had been dancing at the Woonona Queen Festival at the local School of Art; and several people—her brother, her cousin, the M.O. superintending the ball—had noticed how happy she looked and how thoroughly she seemed to be enjoying herself. It had been arranged that she should start on her trip to Sydney with her aunt early next morning, and on mentioning this to several people, she added the curious phrase, “ I'm going over the bridge.” This may have been taken as a joke, or merely as ” meaning that like a country girl, she would enjoy passing over the bridge; in any case, it was not treated seriously at the time, and was only recalled when the tragic news reached her home.

On Wednesday morning she went to Sydney as arranged with her aunt, starting at 5 a.m., and thus her mother did not see her before her departure. She left her aunt to meet a girl friend, after their arrival in the city—beyond this nothing is known of her movements. The girl herself, like most people who experience a sudden and profound shock, cannot recall anything of what occurred; and for fear of serious reaction, the doctor and nurses have concealed from her the true cause of her condition. She is now conscious, though badly bruised and shaken; but when she recovers she may congratulate herself on being one of the three fortunate people who have survived this terrible fall, out of the thirty-seven victims that the bridge has now claimed.

It seems to be futile to speculate about the causes or motives behind such a strange happening as this. The girl probably flung herself over, for the launchman who picked her up believes that he saw a figure against the skyline poised on the bridge rail just before the body fell. But her action, if deliberate, is all the harder to understand. And the story of Madge Hope, with youth and beauty and domestic happiness to bind her to life, is even harder to follow than the mystery of Lucina Moye, of Wagga, sixty-five years of age, who. just a week before, travelled over 300 miles from her country home with the deliberate intention of taking this fatal plunge. Was she less or more fortunate than Madge Hope that she did not survive the ordeal? And what are we to think of the fate of the young woman—apparenth about thirty years old—who, last Sunday evening, was observed by two men removing her shoes and coat, and evidently preparing to hurl herself into the abyss. The young men rushed to save her, one of them seized her woollen dress, but she fought fiercely,' his grip gave way, she fell—and the I body has not yet been recovered. There are unplumbed depths of tragedy here; and behind it all is the haunting and unanswerable question: what is the nature of the strange fascination that the bridge exercises upon so many men, and even more women, in spite of wide diversity in character and circumstances, which succeeds in luring them to self-destruction?